Federal officers spent not less than $170,000 bringing Canadian ISIS women residence from Syria, based on inside authorities paperwork that present bills for ice cream, sweet and wine.
The cash was for prices incurred when eight ladies who had traveled to the Center East to affix the Islamic State returned to Canada with their kids in 2022 and 2023.
Newly-released paperwork present Global Affairs Canada paid for enterprise class flights, stays on the Montreal Airport Marriott, room service, chips, chocolate bars and Timbits.
One resort room price over $1,000 for 2 nights due to a $95 wine tab. One other ran to $850, with costs for junk meals and $25 servings of pink, white and glowing wines.
The prices included $2,800 for catering, $24 sandwiches on the resort’s Bijou restaurant bar, and $86 value of snack meals and over-the-counter medicine at a resort reward store.
The expense stories chronicle room service meals of greater than $100, books, clothes, journey baggage, “Canadian pins,” and a “excessive worth token of appreciation” bought at Greatest Purchase.
A server pocketed a $7 tip for serving two $4 teas, based on the expense stories, which additionally doc purchases of Doritos, and Aero and Caramilk bars.
The bills are for each the ladies and youngsters, in addition to the federal government employees despatched to obtain them once they landed in Montreal earlier than carrying on to their residence provinces.
The ladies have been residing in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec once they left to dwell beneath ISIS, which had seized a swath of Syria and Iraq and launched a marketing campaign of beheadings and assaults within the West.
As ISIS fell to Kurdish fighters backed by a world coalition, the Canadian ladies have been captured and held with their kids for a number of years at crowded detention camps in Syria.
The federal authorities agreed to bring them back to Canada after their households launched a problem in Federal Court docket in Ottawa demanding their return.
Two years to launch prices
International Information requested the paperwork on the prices of the repatriations beneath the Entry to Info Act two years in the past. The division didn’t launch the supplies till Aug. 7, 2025.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and world wide, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you once they occur.
The information don’t seem to incorporate the prices of sending Canadian officers to extract the ladies from Syria, however appear to cowl solely the invoice for receiving them in Montreal.
The division wrote in a letter to International Information that it was withholding 50 pages of paperwork that “are presently beneath session with a international authorities.”
In an announcement to International Information on Wednesday, International Affairs declined to reply questions on its bills, or disclose the total prices related to repatriating the Canadians.
“Whereas we can’t touch upon particular expenditures associated to the operation, International Affairs Canada assumed sure speedy prices to assist the secure return and well-being of the ladies and youngsters repatriated to Canada,” it stated.
A bunch fashioned by households of Canadians killed within the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist assaults stated it was “deeply troubled” by the “extravagant homecoming” the ladies apparently acquired.
“Such spending raises critical questions on authorities priorities, public belief, and the integrity of our system,” stated Sheryl Saperia, CEO of Safe Canada.
The return of international fighters who left to affix terrorist teams ought to prioritize public security, “not reward those that betrayed their nation and broke the legislation,” she stated.
In contrast, she stated victims’ households have needed to pay their very own method to attend authorized proceedings associated to the fear suspects accused of killing their family members.
“The stark distinction between how our authorities treats perpetrators and the way it treats their victims ought to alarm each Canadian and offend each taxpayer.”
The ladies returned to Canada in three waves beginning in October 2022, when Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay got here again at a value of $10,863, based on an entry within the paperwork.
Included within the prices was nearly $2,800 for 100 emergency blankets and 5 first support kits that have been shipped to Syria “for the operation,” often called CONOP1.
A B.C. resident, Polman was allegedly a part of an ISIS battalion that educated ladies to combat. She has been charged with terrorism offences.
Chouay, a resident of Montreal, pleaded guilty on July 21 to taking part within the actions of ISIS and was sentenced to a symbolic single day in jail.
The second repatriation, in April 2023, was the biggest, involving the return of 4 ladies from Ontario and Alberta, and their 10 youngsters.
Amongst them was Edmonton’s Aimee Vasconez, a Muslim convert who traveled to Syria together with her husband Ali Jabbar, who was killed preventing with ISIS.
She then married a second ISIS fighter, “joined an ISIS battalion and has possible been educated in army ways, weapons and methods,” the RCMP alleged.
Additionally a part of the identical operation was Ammara Amjad, of Milton, Ont., who’s presently awaiting path on an ISIS-related terrorism cost.
The CONOP2 occasion was by far the most expensive at $132,445, based on an entry within the paperwork. It additionally went $25,000 over price range, largely on account of what have been described as “larger than anticipated resort prices.”
As a result of not all the ladies confirmed up for the second repatriation, a 3rd often called CONOP3 needed to be organized, at a value of $27,800, based on the paperwork.
It introduced again Helena Carson and Dina Kalouti, sisters-in-law who had left Edmonton with their husbands to affix ISIS.
The bills included Werther’s candies, a spread pack of Frito-Lay chips, Made Good Crimson Velvet Mushy Baked Mini Cookies, and a Tim Horton’s order of fifty Timbits, two dozen doughnuts, 12 coffees and a big Ice Capp.
One other expense report famous a US$75 “buy of 6 turkey & cheese subs and 6 cereal meals” purchased from the U.S. army for the ladies and youngsters.
Carson and Kalouti have been arrested upon their return to Canada, and positioned on terrorism peace bonds that have been scheduled to run out in September.
Not less than 4 Canadian males are believed to stay within the detention camps in northeast Syria, amongst them former ISIS sniper Muhammad Ali of Mississauga, Ont.
The federal government has declined to deliver them again to Canada, and the Federal Court docket has dominated that Ottawa just isn’t obliged to repatriate them.
ISIS “nonetheless poses a big risk through its community of provinces, associates, associated unfastened on-line networks, and on account of its potential to encourage Canada-based risk actors to commit critical acts of violence,” based on the newest annual report of the Canadian Safety Intelligence Service.
